[John Jamieson]

You either made a lot of money or didn't protect it. Your case is not typical of us poor fokes. Are you single, living in a rental, no kids, etc?

[DennisR]

You're right on nearly every account. My kids are grown, I do rent (lost the house in a divorce), and so forth. I did have some capital losses due to the less-than-stellar performance of the stock market. So I did not have a lot of deductions. Bud I don't think it is government's place to tell me I can deduct so much for this and so much for that. That is just another way in which government controls our lives and gets its nose into our business. Government's place should not be to reward or punish us for how many kids we have (or don't have), how much interest we pay (or don't pay), for being blind, senior, and so forth. This is discrimination in the highest, most-complex sense of the word.